Academic Portfolio 2016-2017 |

David Davenport, M.A.
Assistant Professor
ASL/Interpreting Program
Salt Lake Community College

Table of Contents

TEACHING
1. Teaching Philosophy
2. Teaching Responsibilities
3. Objectives and Methodologies
4. Instructional Delivery
5. Instructional Design and Assessment
6. Field/Discipline Knowledge Applied to Teaching
7. Course Management
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
1. Maintaining or developing one’s field knowledge, credentials, etc.
2. Participation in Professional Organizations/Endeavors
SERVICE
1. College Servic e
2. Partnerships and Community Service
INTEGRATION OF PROFESSIONAL WORK AND GOALS

TEACHING

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy has changed over my many years of teaching American Sign Language (ASL). In the beginning of my teaching career, I believed that students should learn the grammar, rules and structure of a language. I didn’t focus on the cultural aspects of a language or the use of various learning approaches, such as natural interaction. However, I now believe that students learn language through interaction and that this approach will increase students’ ability to acquire language more fluently. My learning theory is rooted in language interaction with the teacher monitoring progress using natural approach techniques.

The classroom is the main place where students convene to learn together. In a typical classroom, the seats are arranged into rows, all facing the teacher. In Deaf culture and for teaching ASL, this classroom design is not effective. Seats arranged in a c-shape, with all students facing the teacher and each other, is most effective and what I use in my classroom. With this arrangement, I have noted much improvement in my students’ learning progress and language development through opportunities for interaction. My teaching philosophy emphasizes communication and interaction in the classroom, which creates a positive impact due to an effective learning environment.

I have three preferred teaching methods and approaches. The first teaching method is the Natural Approach, which focuses on fostering natural language acquisition in a classroom (Richards & Rodgers, 2009). This approach emphasizes communication style instead on focusing solely on grammatical structures. Natural language learning can occur in the classroom through the use of interaction and communication among the students and instructor. The instructor knows the language level of students and is able to challenge and expand their abilities through interactive activities. There is natural ongoing communication happening in the classroom. The instructor is also able to teach new language vocabulary and concepts based on how children learn language, with instruction that is built on their current level of functioning. One part of Krashen’s natural approach includes instructional level plus one, aptly described as “I + 1”. This theory focuses on the teacher’ s ability to identify the students’ current learning level and to push it further by teaching content that is one level above the students’ current ability (Brown, 2007).

The second method I use is called the Total Physical Response (TPR). This method focuses on the use of language commands to elicit a physical response from the students in the classroom (Richards & Rodgers, 2009). Students are required to follow the instructor physically and visually instead of passively learning and not being involved. The benefit of this method is that as students learn new vocabulary in class, they will do some physical activities to incorporate and apply the new concepts, signs and grammatical structures that they recently learned. Examples of activities are presenting in front of the class, playing games and interacting with other students. TPR focuses on students’ response to language commands in the classroom in order to provide a positive and safe learning atmosphere for first year students.

Lastly, the Content-Based Instruction (CBI) method focuses on teaching language using the subject matter, and language is coincidentally learned along with the subject matter (Brown, 2007). This is an effective approach for beginning ASL students and school-aged students. Students learn content area material and in doing so also develop stronger language skills. For example, classifiers can be used and taught in a science volcano lesson. Students learn the science of volcanoes and also the ASL grammatical structures. In my classes, I use this approach by bringing current events and other content area into my language classes.

The three methods and approaches mentioned earlier have been shown to make a positive impact on students’ language development (Brown, 2007; Richards & Rodgers, 2009). Students show improvement in their language acquisition and understanding when the methods and approaches are used together and alternatively. Flexibility in the teacher’s preferred approaches is much needed, as it will help the teacher be able to identify the students’ needs in the classroom in order for them to acquire a new language naturally and skillfully. In conclusion, these teaching methods and approaches are the basis of my philosophy.

Reference: Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman.

Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. (2009). Approaches and methods in language teaching.Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Teaching Responsibilities

My teaching responsibilities focus on American Sign Language (ASL) education as well as interpreter training. I teach ASL, interpreting, and Deaf culture courses for ASL and Interpreting programs. For the general education requirement, I teach ASL 1010, 1020, 2010, and 2020. I also teach advanced courses for students majoring in ASL and interpreting, such as proficiency development and ASL Literature courses. Courses are framed on a language skills base, and I use a blend of lecture, discussion, and interaction in my classes. Students actively participate in the interaction and learning activities to improve their communication and language skills. I develop ASL and interpreting curricula to assess students’ ASL competency. I provide support of ASL tutoring with the ASL lab coordinator to incorporate topics within my classroom curriculum. I use innovative teaching methods to improve my teaching in order to meet the needs of the new generation of diverse of students, such as incorporating teaching material into high-tech products.

I frequently use comprehension and production assessments to measure students’ receptive and expressive language skills for most of the lower level ASL courses. I use language projects for upper level ASL courses, where students produce a product through ASL (such as in the ASL literature and proficiency development courses). I design the teaching materials relying heavily on presentation slides and visual aids reducing the source language, such as English, to boost the target language learning environment where students can obtain direct communication with the target language. This is a major element of my teaching philosophy. In addition to the language learning environment, I also teach Deaf culture. I have developed various materials to generate critical thinking regarding the difference between the students’ culture and Deaf culture as part of the standards of American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL). My aim is to help students receive a full understanding and respect of different cultures, in addition to improving their language skills and ability to communicate with Deaf people.

Undergraduate courses during 2016-2017 Academic year:

Beginning American Sign Language II (two sections each semester)

5 credits, 12-17 students per semester

American Sign Language Conversation I (one section in Spring semester)

1 credit, 11 students per semester

Intermediate American Sign Language I (one section in Spring semester)

4 credits, 14 students per semester

Proficiency Development (one section in Fall semester)

4 credits, 12 students per semester

Special Topic in ASL: Fingerspelling (one section in Spring semester)

1 credit, 14 students per semester

Special Topic in ASL: Classifiers (one section in Fall semester)

1 credit, 12 students per semester

Objectives and Methodologies

I developed the comprehensive syllabi and schedule along with course descriptions, course objectives, learning outcomes, assignment descriptions, examinations, as well as a precise outline of how final grades will be awarded. I provide a detailed weekly breakdown of topics and assignments.

My detail-oriented syllabus supports my students and my teaching. I use it as a teaching tool to help organize my lessons. Students receive clear expectations about the course as I follow the expectations stated in the course objectives that then fulfill the course requirements. My clear and comprehensive syllabus supports the program’s curriculum goal to continue the excellence of instruction.

My teaching methods for ASL courses incorporate interaction using the natural approach, which helps students have an opportunity to express themselves in ASL. I always use visual aids such as pictures, clip art, and other forms of visual aids to deliver meaning and concepts in class discussion. I also balance this with lecture and class participation. For example, I don’t want students to sit and watch a lecture the whole class time; I want them to be involved in their learning. I’ve developed video materials and added these into Canvas so students can watch and practice their language skills. As a language instructor, it’s important to me that students have opportunities to share their thoughts through ASL. My syllabus and designated topics supports my teaching methods. I also require students to complete their out-class assignments before class so that in class, they have the opportunity to practice and learn new vocabulary. I have witnessed significant results on students’ comprehension and production skills when students work on their assignments before class time.

Instructional Delivery

I am always making improvements in how I teach ASL skills. I regularly try something new and bring in new materials and ideas to improve my teaching and courses. This often occurs when I find something that teaches an ASL pedagogy concept better or if I’m not satisfied with what is found in the textbook, materials, and approaches/ methods. I have continually strived to improve my teaching these past three years. I am proud with what I did this past year and the student evaluations support this opinion. Per student evaluations, I received a 4.8 out of 5.0 average score for overall evaluation (see student evaluation appendix). I also received a 4.6 out of 5.0 average score for instructional delivery. I continually strive to make my instruction the best for the students, program, department, and college. Below are some examples of what I did for instructional delivery during year 2016-2017.

Teaching Materials for ASL 1020 course

I always develop new teaching materials each year. ASL/I Program updated the curriculum for ASL 1020 and obtained a new textbook, Signing Naturally Units 7-12 textbook. The new textbook helps ASL 1020 students with their homework assignments as well as with ASL 1010’s textbook, which is the Signing Naturally Units 1-6. One of our adjunct instructors and I implemented the new textbook for ASL 1020 in Spring 2016. I decided to develop better materials for the curriculum to fit with my teaching philosophy. I developed all of teaching slides for the classes (See Appendix A). I have set a goal to develop my own textbook for the program, thus developing new teaching materials for this curriculum is a step to meeting this goal. This gives me more opportunities to develop and add new things into my own textbook. The biggest reason I am not satisfied with our current textbook is because most of students have difficult to access the video materials, such as the materials on DVD. The DVD format is going to be out to date and needs to be transferred into new technology, such as Canvas or a web-based video platform. I want to develop everything onto a web-based format, including teaching materials, so students would be able to access the information through their computer and smartphones. Also, I want to develop the courses into a ‘flipped’ classroom model where students can watch video lectures and review vocabulary as homework, which then gives more time for practicing the language in classroom.

Teaching Materials for ASL 2010 course

I had not taught ASL 2010 course for long time till Spring 2016. As with ASL 1010 and 1020 courses, I decided to develop the teaching materials with videos so students would be able to view the lecture videos in Canvas and have more practice time during class time, which supports my teaching philosophy. I created 526 videos for the course materials. See Appendix B for some examples of different videos on the slides.

Loop Videos for ASL 1020 courses’ presentation slides

The new textbook for ASL 1020 courses, Signing Naturally Unit 7-12, includes slides for all instructors to use when teaching the material. These materials are still pictures of different vocabulary signs. A still picture for any ASL vocabulary isn’t enough learn the sign. There are many ways technology can help the learner new vocabulary. I decided to edit the video to become a loop and then add the slides. Now, students can see the videos, which allows for the student to see the motion through the picture. I feel that we need to change all materials to ensure that all can provide moving pictures for all ASL vocabulary. See Appendix C for some examples. Click here to see the Video

A Journey Into Deaf-World Book presentation slides

The cultural book, “A Journey into Deaf-World” is used for ASL 2010. I typically have asked students to write reflective papers about a portion of the book. Doing this, I missed the opportunity to have a class discussion about Deaf Culture. I developed the presentation slides for the class discussion, see Appendix E. This helps students have opportunity to discuss different Deaf Culture subjects through ASL. This is my first time to developing the slides for the book discussion, so I’ll continue add additional content in the slides. (click here to view all contents)

Instructional Design and Assessment

As I develop video materials for my courses, I always try to add something new to my teaching in order to benefit student learning. My average score from the student evaluations for instructional design and assessment was 4.6 out of 5.0. Here are the things that I did during 2016-2017:

Inside Deaf Culture Book Quizzes for ASL 1020 course

I need to update the quizzes for the cultural book, “Inside Deaf Culture” after Spring 2016 semester. I revisited the materials to improve students’ critical thinking and developed some new questions about the book. I admit that I do not feel satisfied with this material, so I’m still working on improving the material for the book. See Appendix D for some examples.

Vocabulary Review for ASL 1020

As I mentioned previously regarding posting videos in Canvas, I want to develop videos for vocabulary review on each unit and create all videos into GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). The GIF is quite popular in current media because this format allows for a video play itself on a website without a video platform, such as YouTube. It is effective for ASL instruction. This project is huge because I have to create a large amount of videos for ASL vocabulary. This project helps me prepare for developing my own e-Textbook in the future. See Appendix F for some examples. Click here to see the Video

New ASL 1020 and ASL 2010 Exams

I mentioned the new textbook and lesson plans with Signing Naturally Unit 7-12 curriculum, I have also developed exams for Unit 7 to Unit 11. See Appendix H for more examples. I proud of this accomplishment because I feel it is a current and effective way for ASL assessment. I always seek to develop many new things for my classes to improve the students’ experience. I also developed new exams for ASL 2010 as I again always love to create these. See Appendix I for the example of ASL 2010 exams.

Final Exam for ASL 1020 courses

I developed the final exam for ASL 1020, See the example in Appendix J. Since we changed new textbook and contents, so I have had to update the final exam so all the materials and content are up to date with the new textbook. After I developed the final exam, it helped me develop the standard program final exam for ASL 1020. Also, this has helped me develop better ideas for a placement test or challenge test for ASL 1020. The program standard final exam and challenge test are part of my goals for next year.

Assignments in Canvas for ASL 1020 and ASL 2010 courses

I developed assignments (homework) in Canvas for students to complete. The new textbook provides homework for each lesson but it doesn’t provide any assignments for Canvas. I developed this because I want to make it easier for students to complete the homework. See Appendix K for some examples. I also developed assignments for the ASL 2010 course, see Appendix L for some examples. Again, I always want to develop everything into an electronic format as I did with assignments and videos, to make it easier for students to access.

Video Lectures for ASL 2010 courses

I mentioned creating teaching materials for 2010, I have also created over five hundred videos including lecture videos for students to view on their own time , which allows for more practice time during class. See Appendix M for some examples on video lectures in Canvas. Click here to see the Video

Field/Discipline Knowledge Applied to Teaching

I think it is very important to continually improve my ASL teaching skills. I review all curriculum, video materials, and assessments and look for ways to make improvements. Lately, I’ve focused on developing new video materials for ASL instruction and it is a learning process for me as I learn what works and what doesn’t work. My innovative video materials provide students better access to learn ASL. I feel strongly that we must try something different if we wish to see a different result.

New ASL 1020 Exam Result Data

I shared my plan for researching ASL Assessment through using a website, instead having instructor to sign it in the class and students write down the answers. I wanted to gather information about why we should change the traditional way of providing exams, so I gathered the statistics from Canvas’ report on each exams during Spring 2016 and Fall 2016. This helps me understand if improvements are needed in order for valid and reliable for ASL assessments. See Appendix G.

Provide a workshop/training on ASL Pedagogy

My plan is to share information about the two different formats for providing exams (face-to-face in the classroom and videos in Canvas). After I get more data from the classes I teach and use different assessment formats, I want to have an opportunity to present to other ASL instructors. I want to present at ASLTA national conference in June; however, I’m commitment to serve on the committee for the conference. I spoke with the person who is in the charge of workshops and keynote speakers to see if they have any available slots for me to provide a workshop. He added my name into the list as backup if other presenters can’t make it to the conference. I feel it is important for me to share what I have learned with other colleagues.

Signing Naturally Units 7-12 Instructional Workshop

I participated in intensive training on new textbook, Signing Naturally Unit 7-12, on June 2016. The presenters, Cheryl Smith and Ken Mikos, the authors of the textbook, came to Salt Lake City and trained us. The workshop was very beneficial for me to improve my teaching approaches on these units. I noticed that my teaching skills improved after I attended the workshop. One thing I learned from the workshop is that we have to be patient and ensure that all students learn something at same time. I need to use role playing when teaching as the authors mentioned that this is key for students to learn new vocabulary and able to express it in ASL. See Appendix U about the workshop.

Course Management

Organizing lessons, assignments, schedule, and other items is my strength as I set clear expectations for students to complete their assignments. My syllabus and schedule for all courses is clear and organized. I don’t have issues with lesson plans, assignments, and contents in Canvas. I received 4.5 out of 5.0 average score on course management from student evaluation (see student evaluation Appendix).

Student Evaluation Comments

I extracted some comments from student evaluations (see student evaluation appendix).

Give Specific Examples of how this class may have been intellectually stimulating:

Teacher made sure everyone was in participation (ASL 1020.002 Spring 2016)

I loved this class. I was interested every day and had the desire to learn more.(ASL 1020.002 Spring 2016)

Excellent use of class time. Always made things fun and interesting. Always stimulated class participation.(ASL 1020.002 Spring 2016)

He gave us a lot of practice time. (ASL 2010.001 Spring 2016)

This class taught me more ASL than I knew before starting the class. (ASL 2010.001 Spring 2016)

He gave us videos that had fingerspelling to test our abilities.(ASL 2400.001 Spring 2016)

I loved this class, it was really fun and great when everyone knew what he was saying. He is a great teacher! He is a very happy person and I think that is one reason the class is so fun.(ASL 2400.001 Spring 2016)

Teacher had a good attitude! Excited to teach.(ASL 1010.001Summer 2016)

Give Specific Examples of how this class may have been intellectually stimulating:

Teacher would explain why I got things wrong and helped to correct them.(ASL 1020.002 Spring 2016)

Used videos often. Used Textbook often. Went over homework assignments, reviews before and after tests that helped a lot. Great class(ASL 1020.002 Spring 2016)

The aspects that contributed to my learning were the power points that the professor put together. He also slowed down when one of us did not understand.(ASL 2010.001 Spring 2016)

He gave us videos to help us and had good discussions in class about fingerspelling.(ASL 2400.001 Spring 2016)

Teacher’s personality (ASL 1010.001 Summer 2016)

What aspects of this class detracted most from your learning?:

Sometimes class would turn into a huge discussion about things not related to the subject and that could be frustrating but I didn’t mind too much. (ASL 1020.002 Spring 2016)

The only aspects that detracted from my learning were the other students and that sometimes I did not understand what the professor was saying. (ASL 2010.001 Spring 2016)

As much as I love his tangents they sometimes were distracting. (ASL 2010.001 Spring 2016)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Maintaining or developing one’s field knowledge, credentials, etc.

UIP Workshops

I attended workshops offered by Utah Interpreter Program on March 10-13, June 9-12, and September 8-11, 2016 (see Appendix N). I also served as a language mentor for their workshops. I have participated with UIP workshops since 2003 as I always contribute my skills and knowledge to ICAN (Interpreter Certification Advancement Network) and I also learned from other presenters on a variety of subjects. I received the evaluation result from UIP after I presented the workshops. First workshop I got 100% “Very Satisfied” and second workshop I got 75% “Very Satisfied (See Appendix O). The program coordinator told me that several interpreters told her that they really enjoyed my workshops. They have asked me to continue work with them in 2017.

Deaf Studies Talk with Ben Jarashow Workshops

I attended all of Ben Jarashow workshops provided by Sanderson Community Center of the Deaf and hard of Hearing. Ben Jarashow is the Professor of Deaf Studies from Utah Valley University. All topics he presented are beneficial to my teaching because I learned new information , which helped me improve the cultural discussions I have with my students. See Appendix P, Q, R, S, and T for further information about the workshops. Here’s the list of topics.

“The Joy of ASL Literature” about the culture of Deaf people including studies of their beliefs, practices and language.
“Gestures: The Root of Sign Language” about the development of signed languages, the transition to a language from gestures.
“The Cycle of Ideology: The Image of Deaf People in Hollywood” about different characters in Hollywood films and the ideological cycle.
“Unity of Gallaudet” The Second Social Movement at Gallaudet University.
“Eugenics Movement and Alexander Graham Bell”. The workshop is show that about AGB’s support of oralism was tied to his belief in eugenics.

Signing Naturally Units 7-12 Instructional Workshop

I participated in extensive training for the new Units 7-12 Curriculum for three days (19 hours). The two trainers were the authors of the Signing Naturally Curriculum, Cheri Smith and Ken Mikos. See Appendix U for Certificate of Completion. The workshop was beneficial, largely on my teaching skills. I feel this is a very important workshop and every ASL instructor should attend this workshop. Both trainers have over 30 years of ASL teaching experiences and knowledge about the subject and teaching approaches. I learned most on how to get students to participate with language exercises and they also provided great tips and discussions on a variety of subjects. I was very fortunate to be able to attend this workshop.

UT-ASLTA 2016 Annual Conference

I participated the annual UT-ASLTA Conference in June 24-25, 2016 (See Appendix V for further information about the conference). I enjoyed the workshop by Keith Gamache Jr on “ASL-hood: Finding Excellence in Yourself”. He discussed why we want to teach ASL and how can we embrace the profession. There were other workshops about Incorporating social media in an interactive ASL online, Evaluation and Assessment and Classroom Management. I was panelist with other three panelists about Classroom Management. We discussed how we do manage our classes , how we assesses our students, tell them to use ASL, and how a Deaf teacher can call out students who are using their voices compared to hearing teachers who can call them out when they hear them talking. We answered questions from the participants. The discussion went really well and we learned that most of these issues occur in high school classes.

Participation in Professional Organizations/Endeavors

ASLTA Certification/Membership

I renewed my membership with ASLTA and remain certified (see Appendix W). I applied for Qualified level certification test (see Appendix X). I submitted the test on December 2016 and in about 8 weeks after the submission I will receive the results. I have been certified for four years, so it is time to apply for the upper level of certification as I feel it is important to maintain ASLTA certification.

ASLTA National Conference Committee – Marketing Chair

I still serve as Marketing Chair on the committee to prepare for ASLTA National Conference in June 2017. I’m responsible for video promotions, developing materials, program book, and other things. I developed the slides with all the information for our first meeting with the ASLTA board members in January 2016 (Appendix Y). The members were excited about having us for hosting the conference. I developed the “Save the Date” flyer and created a video promotion to remind people to save the date. I also created short video promotions giving information about registration, call for papers, sponsors from Gallaudet University, 5 reasons why we should go to ASLTA Conference, 5 reasons why SLC is perfect location, and keynote speakers announcements, See Appendix Z. I posted these videos onto the ASLTA Facebook page and Mailchimp for mass email. I will continue to send out the videos and messages to everyone about the conference. I went to two ASLTA National Conferences in the past and there were no video promotions or messages about their conferences. People told me that they were very impressed with our efforts to communicate with the audience. I’m proud with what I developed for the conference. Click here to see all videos in Playlist.

I created and designed forms from scratch (see Appendix AA) about sponsorship, registration form, program book reservation form, and exhibition application form with visual aids. The conference chair and ASLTA board members were impressed with my design because it is totally different from the original form. I believe that a nice colorful design is important to grab people’s attention and it looks more professional. I realized that serving on the committee for the national conference is time consuming; however, it is great opportunity to serve the organization and improve myself as professional.

Serve as Interpreter Certification Board

I was selected as a board member for the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation’s Interpreter Certification Board in August 2016 (see Appendix EE). I, as board member, represent the Utah System of Higher Education under the State Board of Regents. The board meets quarterly. I attended October 2016 and January 2017 meetings.

SERVICE

College Service

Updating Program’s iPads

The program secretary and I worked together to update all of our program’s iPads and cleaned up everything last Summer 2016. I decided to redesign the wallpaper on the iPads as I like to make it looks professional and nice (See Appendix BB). I created 30 pictures with iPad’s numbers. We have 30 iPads so each picture has own number such as “iPad 01”. The background is AAB building so I adjusted the picture into blurry so I can add handshapes, such as “ASLI” with iPad number.

ASL Language Lab

After the secretary left from the job last Fall 2016, ASLI Faculty members and I decided to revisit the ASL lab lesson plans and take some responsibility to support our tutors and provide training and lesson plans. We agreed that I would develop the lesson plans for ASL 1020 and Duane Kinner worked on ASL 1010. I realized that many things were outdated on the old lesson plans in ASL lab. I decided to update everything and ensure that the lessons match our classroom instruction. I developed 10 lesson plans and video instructions for our ASL tutors (see Appendix CC for some examples). I feel good about involving with ASL lab because we usually have ASL lab coordinator/secretary take care of lab. But with the change, we found out there were many things that are needed to be improved or updated, which we were able to do. The tutors told me that they love watching the video instructions about lesson plans as I provided both languages on lesson plans (see Appendix DD). Click here to see the videos.

Online Teaching Working Group

Jeanine Alesch suggested I participate with a small working group to develop the Introduction to Online Teaching resource (see Appendix FF). I recently joined this working group so I will continue to contribute my time to support the group. I’m also very interested in online instruction for ASL courses and I thought this would be a great opportunity to participate with the group and learn more.

CCO updating for ASL courses

I revised the CCO for ASL 1010 on student Learning Outcomes because we noticed there was not enough information in current CCO that was developed by Holly Nelson. I added more details on each criteria in the outcomes (see Appendix GG). I followed the ACTFL standard on learning outcomes for ASL courses and revised it to fit to our program. My colleagues and I are still working on this.

Providing the workshop at Professional Development Center

My colleague Connie Spanton-Jex and I presented on the integration of technology into ASL courses at the SLCC Professional Development Center. Jason Pickavance organized the SLCC Open Teaching Project. We discussed using iPads, the Swivl, and GoReact videos. We showed how we use this technology to provide student feedback. I also shared some of my work with flipped classrooms using online video lectures and vocabulary review in Canvas. The workshop was small in attendance, but it was great opportunity to share our work with the college. We were told that the attendees were very impressed with our workshop. Jason encouraged us to present at the 2017 Utah Coalition for Educational Technology Conference at University of Utah in March, but we are unable to attend this year. We have submitted our presentation proposal to the 1st Annual Teaching for Learning Conference at Utah Valley University and hope to present at this conference. I want to continue working with Jason Pickavance developing future workshops at the center as this was my first time contributing to the college outside of my ASL-related endeavors. The SLCC Open Teaching Project was a great first opportunity to share my work.See Appendix HH with announcement and slides.

Partnerships and Community Service

UIP Workshops

UT-ASLTA 2016 Annual Conference

ASLTA National Conference Committee – Marketing Chair

Serve as Interpreter Certification Board

Serve as Board of Utah Athletic Club of the Deaf

I served as Athletic Director and board of UACD. This organization provides the sport activities for Deaf people such as basketball tournament, volleyball, and softball. I have served on UACD since 2002 and it is part of my community service. (see Appendix II)

Integration of Professional Work and Goals

Throughout the journey through my career, I have always embraced the teaching profession. Not just teaching the language, but I also love to see students become successful after they graduate from the school. I continually focus on improving myself to become a great instructor, leader, and advocate in ASL Education.

Throughout this portfolio of my work, I’ve showed that I am always seeking to improve the teaching materials to enhance and create a better learning atmosphere. I like to try new things, which I then share my experiences with other colleagues as to what to try, what worked, what didn’t and what was better. I don’t like the phrase “good enough” because it doesn’t push someone to do their best. I’ve always believed myself to do everything my best and to pursue the top. I always push and challenge myself to new levels, such as creating new video materials for students.

The three professional accomplishments I am most proud of are:

1. Developed teaching presentation slides with videos
2. Create GIF videos into Canvas
3. Serve as conference marketing committee chair

My new goals for next year are:

1. Gathering research on exam formats for ASL instruction
2. Complete all vocabulary for ASL 1020 course and integrate into Canvas with GIF videos
3. Obtain ASLTA Qualified Certification

As an instructor, I always view my students as my first priority so my responsibility as an instructor is profound. I want to give my best, utilizing my talents for the college, the department, the program, and the classes. Teaching ASL is my passion.

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